Intercultural Mirrors: Dynamic Reconstruction of Identity contains (auto)ethnographic chapters and research-based explorations that uncover the ways our intercultural experiences influence our process of self-discovery and self-construction. The idea of intercultural mirrors is applied throughout all chapters as an instrument of analysis, an heuristic tool, drawn from philosophy, to provide a focus for the analysis of real life experiences. Plato noted that one could see one’s own reflection in the pupil of another’s eye, and suggested that the mirror image provided in the eye of the other person was an essential contributor to self-knowledge. Taking this as a cue, the contributors of this book have structured their writings around the idea that the view of us held by other people provides an essential key to one’s own self-understanding. Contributors are: James Arvanitakis, Damian Cox, Mark Dinnen, James Ferguson, Tom Frengos, Dennis Harmon, Donna Henson, Alexandra Hoyt, William Kelly, Lucyann Kerry, Julia Kraven, Taryn Mathis, Tony McHugh, Raoul Mortley, Kristin Newton, Marie-Claire Patron, Darren Swanson, and Peter Mbago Wakholi.

Evaluating Indigenous African Tradition for Cultural Reconstruction and Mind Decolonization is edited by Oluwole O Durodolu, and is an insightful book that challenges the derogatory portrayal of African Traditional Religion (ATR) and highlights the need for cultural reconstruction and mind decolonization. The book explores the derogatory descriptions that have been used to describe ATR and argues that subjecting religion to logical inquiry diminishes the essence of worship and promotes disbelief. The book examines the relevance of indigenous African tradition to cultural reconstruction and evaluates the place of African culture in the global context. The author argues that upholding the general principle of African Traditional belief, which upholds communalism and morality, can address problems such as corruption, poverty, and unemployment in the African continent. This book is an essential resource for academics, students, researchers, and anyone interested in understanding the relevance of African Traditional Religion in contemporary times and the need for cultural reconstruction and mind decolonization for the betterment of the African continent and the world at large.

Comment les littératures du monde entier ont elles, chacune à sa façon ou s'inspirant mutuellement, vécu, assumé, rejeté les modèles culturels, artistiques et linguistiques, que de force ou de gré elles ont été amenées à accueillir au long des siècles? Comment les traductions, vecteurs premiers des relations interlittéraires, ont elles joué de leurs immenses ressources pour dissimuler, encourager ou décourager la constante et périlleuse mise en cause des traditions nationales?Les quatorze contributions de ce volume nous offrent un éventail de réponses à ces deux questions. De la France au Japon, de la Chine aux Etats-Unis, du Brésil à la Pologne, nous voyons se déployer les multiples stratégies médiatrices de la traduction, toutes révélatrices des tensions qui traversent les cultures où elle prend naissance, que ces tensions soient de nature culturelle, langagière ou littéraire.Ni simples transferts linguistiques, ni fenêtres transparentes sur l'Ailleurs, ni discours désincarnés sur l'Autre, les traductions relèvent plus exactement d'un processus complexe de communication, auquel prennent également part tant les traducteurs que leurs lecteurs: vivant et agissant au coeur des littératures adoptives, ils en investissent aussi bien les grands genres que la paralittérature, ils en infléchissent, souvent de concert, les valeurs et les modes d'écrire, et en démontent, pour mieux les exhiber, les rouages intimes.

Until rather recently, philosophy, when practiced as a way of life, was, for most, a communal enterprise of mutually reinforced personal cultivation. It is time, yet again, to revitalize this lost, but vital, intercultural mode of philosophy.

Religion has played a major role in both the division and unification of peoples and countries within Africa. Its capacity to cause, and to heal, societal rifts has been well documented. This book addresses this powerful societal force, and explores the implications of a theology of reconstruction, most notably articulated by Jesse Mugambi. This way of thinking seeks to build on liberation theology, aiming to encourage the rebuilding of African society on its own terms. An international panel of contributors bring an interdisciplinary perspective to the issues around reconstructing the religious elements of African society. Looking at issues of reconciliation, postcolonialism and indigenous spirituality, among others, they show that Mugambi’s cultural and theological insight has the potential to revolutionise the way people in Africa address this issue. This is a fascinating exploration of the religious facets of African life. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of religious studies, theology and African studies.

Cultural analysis is devoted to understanding the past as part of the present, as what we have around us. The essays gathered here represent the current state of an emerging field of enquiry.